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Compact/Sub tractors for loading salt

Hello to all, enjoy the Holiday season. Checking to see if anyone uses small tractors with loaders for salt. I would like suggestions, pros and cons. I really don't need a skid steer, however loading by hand will be difficult. Thanks in advance. John Deere and Kubota are considered machines.

How mulch salt do you use? What are you loading into? How many times per storm are you loading up?

Way back when, we used a JD 870 which was a 30 HP (give or take) compact tractor. It did fine for quite some time, although we ran it into the ground loading salt. It was very tired by the time we got rid of it, but it had loaded thousands of tons of salt by that time. We had to build a ramp to load our biggest truck, still had to turn the truck around to get a full load and took aboot a half hour.

Just realize they are not designed as loaders persay, cycle time isn't what a dedicated loader is. Lift capacity, height and reach may not be the same as a dedicated loader. But they will do the job.

Yup, I have also used a deere 1070 w/430 loader to load salt for the last 10 yrs. My machine is my garden and logging machine so it takes a beating all year. Avg 90 ton of salt last few winters. Lifts around 1400lbs so barely makes the grade for a heaping 1/2 yd of salt considering lift is so high. Also barely makes the dump height for my old chevy 2500hd w polycaster. If I had a Ford it would be tough. However, it has worked for me. Parts are still available and its basic to work on. Newer machines not so much but typically better capacities. I was going to get a skid this year but lost a large acct so thats on the back burner now. I'm guessing the old 1070 will outlast me... One of my last projects for the winter is to patch the baseball size holes now appearing in the bucket after a decade of salt. I wouldn't go less than 40 hp. A lightly used deere 4720 would be the ticket since all the gentleman farmers are now going for the new R series machines.